VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

National awakening is a moment of arousing the sense and spirit of unity, nationalism and awareness to fight for the independence of a country. In Indonesia, the National Awakening is commemorated every May 20th. 110 years ago, precisely in 1908, Dr. Soetomo and several students of STOVIA, the School of Doctor Education in the Dutch colonial era, founded a youth organization called ‘Boedi Oetomo’.Forty years later or in 1948, President Sukarno set May 20th as the insurgence day of nationalism.

Boedi Oetomo is a social, economic and cultural organization instead of political one. The establishment of Budi Utomo became the beginning of a movement aimed at achieving Indonesian independence. Boedi Oetomo became a marker that the Indonesian people for the first time realized the importance of unity. Being united is a key word when Indonesians want to achieve noble ideals. Boedi Oetomo has provided an example of how to assemble and organize without seeing the matters related to tribes, religions and groups. At the end, all of these could encourage the growing spirit of nationalism that became the main engine of achieving independence.

What would happen if awareness of being united did not nurture among the Indonesian people at the time?  Now, a hundred and ten years later, the Indonesian nation has grown into a great and developing nation, parallel to some countries. The people of Indonesia have enjoyed the results of their heroes’ struggle in the form of improved economy, health, and education. Boedi Oetomo was established by several people who were aware of the importance of being united. From those people, the occurrence of unity spread to become a capital for the Indonesian nation and finally, this achieved independence. If 110 years ago, the Indonesian people who did not have anything but the spirit, could be united to achieve the common goal, namely independence.

Thus now, the spirit of being united must keep being enlivened. More importantly, Indonesia is going to carry out political years: Regional Head Election (Pilkada) in 2018 and Presidential Election in 2019 that are vulnerable to pose conflicts due to differences of choice among Indonesian people.